The heroes have the power to overcome the darkness
by Aim33245
Summary: Story about what happens after Emma Swan, who was once known as the savior, turns dark and loses her pure as snow heart and turns into someone with a coal, dark heart, revealing a side of her which her family, her one handed pirate boyfriend and especially her own son has never seen before. Can the Charming's and her friends help her remember who she was before darkness took over?
1. The moment after

**The Moment After**

 **~ Disclaimer: The story of Once upon a Time does not belong to me, nor the characters ~**

The night was deep in darkness as the citizens of Storybrooke gathered on the street where the spectacle of Emma Swan sacrificing herself for the women who brought her son up and the former mayor, Regina Mills. The dagger dropped on the concrete road as the wind howled and gasped also filled the air.

"Mom" Henry called out, worried as he ran towards the dagger. He stared down at it as Regina ran over to restrain him from picking the darkened dagger up. The silver from it reflected the moons light and into Henry's eyes as a tear dropped off his cheek and onto the dagger. His stare never left the sight of the dagger as his family ran over to see for themselves what was happening. Regina stared at the dagger, following the gaze of Henry with a shocked expression on her face.

"That. That should be my name on the dagger, not Emma's." Regina Whimpered as her voice began to break.

"She sacrificed herself to the darkness and saved you, that is her job. As the saviour" Mary - Margaret said, staring at the dagger and too her voice breaking and, like Henry, a tear dropping. Her eyes were like fragile glass, with the light reflecting off them. She pulled David in to hug her for comfort but he never made eye contact with her, the only focus he had was on that dagger which proclaimed and projected the name of the next Dark One, the name it said was overwhelming for the Charming family, Regina, Henry, Killian and Belle.

Regina ran to Robin for comfort, he wasn't as close to Emma as the others were because he was fairly new to the town. He knew she was the saviour and wanted to give the town's citizens their truly deserved happy endings. She helped Regina and helped the others remember their previous lives when they lived in the Enchanted Forest. Some of the memories being good, some of the memories being bad.

Henry, he had no words. Killian could feel his pain. Henry did the one thing which Emma would be happy to see, he ran to Killian, burying his head into the one handed pirate's shoulders as he hugged him. He felt like Killian was someone who he felt safe with, beside his grandparents of course. Killian had taught him how to sail and how to navigate using only the stars sparkling in the night sky, as he did with his father at such a young age. That was the beauty of being a fairytale character, he was able to experience the past and the present of the generation of Henry's family and spend time with his mother, his father and also spend time with him.

Killian too was fragile, like Mary - Margaret and David, he felt like he was losing his true love and the only woman he was ever able to love as he loved Mila. He was broken from the event as he hugged Henry tightly. They began to turn away as a string of both darkness and light burst out of the dagger and filled the air with rumbles following.

The light was dazzling, there was more darkness than there was light and because of this, it looked like the darkness has tiny little crystals inside of it because of the way the light was piercing through. There was a crash of thunder which lit the air up fully causing everybody to duck and throw their arms up to cover their faces.


	2. The Power Sneaks Up

**The Power sneaks up**

When the light finally cleared, lying in it's place was a figure. A familiar figure but at the same time, unrecognizable. The figure was still, darkened dust and light hovering above it. Thunder still rumbling but without the lightning followed as the figure gently moved their head to the left facing the others.

"Mom!" Henry instantly called out, with the sound of relief in his voice. He ran towards her as his scarf blew behind him when the wind hit. As he got closer to her, there was a burst of light which flung him back to the others. It was like there was a barrier of light surrounding her to protect her.

"Oh my gosh, Henry? are you ok?" Regina said as she let go of Robin to check on him putting her hands on his shoulders. He winced with pain as he held up his hand in front of his face to see what was causing him distress. When he looked at it, there was a burn from the barrier but it glittered. Regina helped Henry up with a little help from Robin.

"Take him to the loft and put his hand under cold water. Wrap it up and keep him safe, we won't be long to check up on him." Regina instructed Robin as he nodded and led Henry away.

"Whilst I do this" she said to herself, she threw her hands behind her before pointing them to Emma releasing magic from them, it was to abolish the light barrier. The force of the barrier was strong although the magic Regina released was stronger. There was a burst of glitter being released from the barrier confirming it was breaking away. There was a loud pop which managed to throw Regina and the others slightly back, Killian ran towards her, lifting her head up slightly.

"Emma!" he said, staring at her blank expression on her face. "Emma!" he repeated, his voice breaking. "Don't leave me, please. I love you too much to let you go" his facial expression changing to a broken look, at first he had hope. Now, he felt like he was losing it all. He was lost, he didn't know what to do, he felt tears fill up his eyes, it wasn't long before one dropped onto her cheek and disappeared from her skin, he dropped his head as he regained focus on her face before kissing her gently on her lips, he stayed there for a few seconds before moving away and stroking her cheek. She gasped as air filled her lungs and she began breathing again.

"Emma?" questioned Belle

"Yeah?"

"You're alive!" Killian said with relief

"Um, yeah I am"

Killian stared at her, this was surreal. There were no signs of darkness in her yet there was.

"Wait up just one moment. This can't be right." Regina said, scowling at her, she walked over to her before taking her heart out of her chest and staring at it. It was turning black slowly but unlike Rumple's heart, it had flickers of silver dust. Regina gasped, flicking her eyes from Emma's heart back to her eyes. They were filling up with black. Emma snatched her heart from Regina and put it back in her chest, turned away from her, picked the dagger up and teleported away, disappearing with a cloud of purple and white mist surrounding the spot where she once stood. Leaving only Regina, Killian, her parents and Belle behind.

"What was that all about?" questioned Mary - Margaret

"The darkness has just struck her, she has lost all of her light magic and although it will light magic she produces when she activates her magic, it will be deadly." Regina answered, sighing suddenly after.

"Magic in disguise" David answered, he whipped his head to look at Mary - Margaret.

"Exactly, as the evil queen I used it quite often and because she is currently the dark one, she will have inherited that power and the knowledge on how to use it."

The sky regained its stars, there was no darkness anymore because of it being placed on someone as it did with the former dark one, Mr. Gold. There was only one place where she could have gone to which to be honest, wasn't the best place for her to go to. The place where she could summon those who have the same amount of power as her and cause a mass amount of bother to the small town of Storybrooke.


	3. Next Step

Henry sat on the bar stool in the loft as Robin prepared the bandages to put on his hand. He just sat there, staring at his hand with the book lying on the bench next to him, open on the page of Mr. Gold's castle when he was known as the dark one.

The castle was large, it had cabinets everywhere in its main room. The colour scheme was red and gold which seemed to signal that the most powerful man lived there. Belle was doing what he hired her to do, clean the tables, dust the cabinets and also prepare any food or drinks which he desired to consume.

"Belle, I have to go out of town for a bit, I need you to look after this castle as if it was your own. It means a great deal to me and well, I know I can trust you to guard it as if it was your own flesh and blood." He said as he placed is hands on the arms of the chair he was sitting on to be able to lift himself up.

"Um, you're trusting me? with your home? but I just clean and tidy up and prepare food and drink for you." she said, as her facial expression turned from focused to curious. She placed her duster down on the long rectangular table located in the centre of the room, it was silver and gold with a white mural in the centre, and walked towards the chair he was sitting in.

"Yes. You've worked for me for long enough and well, you've managed to teach me to love again. I want to go on a quest, it's an important one for me. I feel like you know your way around this place. I can trust you. But remember this dearie, I will be able to flicker between what I see in front of me and what you are up to." Rumple quickly stated, before moving from the chair he was sitting in and towards the door which led to the main hallway, whisking his right hand to open the door and then shut it once his presence was gone. Belle sighed after this and carried on with her chores, not knowing what or who the dark one was going on that quest to find or the reason for why he needs to go on the quest.

"Now, Mr. Mills, let me have a look at that injured hand of yours" said Robin as he held a damp cloth in his hand with the intension of attempting to sooth the pain Henry was experiencing. Robin took one look at it and smiled at Henry before gently placing the dampened cloth over it and applying slight pressure to it.

"Ow" Henry said, once again wincing in pain

"I know, but it's for the best. It helps get the sting out before it's wrapped up."

Henry looked at Robin, smiling as he tried to stop the pain getting to him too much.

"You know Henry, when I was in the Enchanted Forest, taking money from the rich, it wasn't plain sailing. I got injured quite a lot. I remember stealing some coins from a wealthy man, he was mean and selfish and would never sacrifice anything if it didn't bring him benefit. When I got away from his home, I remember feeling a shooting pain coming from my hand. I had a similar injury to yours and little John taught me how to stop the pain. This is what I am doing right now, to your injury." Robin explained as he dabbed the injury and picked a bottle up, he gently poured it over his hand before wrapping it up in the same cloth he had dampened. Moments later, the loft door opened, Regina and his grandparents came in.

"Henry" Regina said with a sigh of relief "I'm glad you're okay" she added before bringing him in for a hug.

"Hello Regina, I'm okay too remember me, Robin Hood" Robin sarcastically commented, Regina laughed before hugging him with Henry.

"Where's Emma?" Mary - Margaret quickly questioned, her head darting from one side of the loft to the other.

"Remember on the way over here when I said there are two places Emma could have gone to build up her power that much she would stay dark forever?" Regina said, as she stood up and looked both Mary - Margaret and David in the eye.

"Yeah?" David questioned

"Well, she isn't here which remains one place.

"You don't actually think that she -" Mary - Margaret said, looking up at David

"She has gone, to seek the queens of darkness once again. Rumple failed once, that's because he failed to get the savior on his side. Now that they have her dark, well, this quiet town of Storybrooke will turn dark. Forever" Regina explained.

"But, wait. What would she have to do, you know, you turn Storybrooke dark?" Henry asked, jumping up.

"She would have to change everything in the book"


	4. Appearance

**Appearance**

Emma reappeared in what looked like a lair which someone used as a plotting room for taking over the world. It was large and dark because of the lack of lighting it had. Although the room is large, every bit of furnishing it held made it seem like a cramped space. It had sofa which looked like it belonged in an old painting, it was a deep shade of grape with tiny diamonds pierced inside it to give it that extra bit of something. Above it, there was a dark brown shelf which held empty potion bottles holding scrap pieces of paper. All of the papers were crumpled and torn in the corners. The purple smoke which once surrounded her faded away as she stared in the darkened and dirty mirror hanging directly opposite to the sofa with an evil grin.

"Well, this will not do" she said as she stared at her appearance before waving her hands above her head before being engulfed in once again, purple smoke. When the smoke cleared, her appearance and her hairstyle had changed entirely. Her jumper had changed from a jumper into a floor length, black, glittery dress and her hair was up into a bun. Her makeup had also changed, she had black makeup on and red lips, her face glittered in the lights. She slowly lifted her head to take a look at her new appearance before smiling mischievously.

"Perfect" she said, laughing at herself.

Regina sat thinking at the desk of her office on how she can stop the darkness getting to Emma before it was too late for her heart to cope. Although it took years for Rumple's heart to darken and light magic being sucked away from her heart, Emma's could change at any given moment because of her light magic attempting to defend herself against the darkness, however because she willingly gave up her light magic to save someone, darkness was invited instead of being written to that person.

"Regina, what are we going to do?" Killian asked as he paced the floor, stopping to say his piece before continuing his action.

"I don't know okay. Just wait. Whilst I work it out." She admitted, with a flustered tone to her voice.

"W-Would Mr. Gold have any ideas on what to do?" Robin asked, making Regina lift her head.

"Mr. Gold's currently unconscious, Dr. Whale is with him but I remember him saying that darkness against light is like a notorious historical battle. One verses One. One victor, one loser." Belle said, slowing her words as she continued the sentence.

"Yeah" said Killian, dragging the h slightly. "wait. Is there a potion we can use? you know, sneak it into her drink and poof! she's back to her original self"

Regina shook her head slowly before standing up and walking at a hurried pace towards her bookcase. Henry stood back in between Robin and Belle as she pulled out a dusty old red book with gold woven around the edges of the cover as well as along the side of the spine of the book. Regina opened the book where the bookmark was, written on the page was ingredients with instructions. On the opposite side was a picture of a bottle with some liquid inside. The label had some writing on it, the writing was not in English but in a different language. _'Mirk magic tae light'_

The others stared at it with the same expression as Regina.

"What does that mean?" asked Henry

"Can anyone actually understand what that means?" asked Killian

"I know who could read it, but it's getting them here is the problem" Regina quickly interrupted

"Who?" Asked Robin


	5. Bows and Arrows

**Bows and Arrows**

There was a swipe sound of an arrow followed by a small sound of a board. A sigh suddenly followed before the sound of crunching of stones being crushed by feet. Crickets and butterfly's flew around her before the butterfly landed on her frizzy ginger hair. She walked towards the archery board and took the arrow from the bull's-eye.

"Yet again Merida, you managed to get yourself another bull's-eye." Merida smiled and chuckled to herself before wandering over to the board where the arrow had pierced through the centre. Her blue cloak swayed from left to right as she moved and the golden button which held the cloth together shined in the sunlight. Her horse, Hamish, stood proudly as if he was keeping an eye out for a potential threat to the princess.

Just before she let go of her next arrow, a familiar voice sounded her name, causing her to lose concentration and the arrow taking off in a completely different direction to where she had intended it to go.

"Merida!" A female voice called out and projected to where she was standing as the princess darted her eyes towards the direction of where the voice was coming from.

"Oh no! No, No, No!" Merida quickly responded before swiftly putting her arrows in her bag and her bow around her shoulders and body. She ran towards Hamish to get back to her castle.

"Her three brothers sat at the dinner table. They were naughty little things and constantly wanted those cakes with the jam on top. They started to crawl under the table so they could manoeuvre themselves to where the cakes sat on the table, with the intention of not getting caught by their father(formally known as the king) or their mother(the queen).

"Hey mum, hey dad" Merida said, suspiciously cheery as she placed her bow over her chair and her bag of arrows beside the nearest chair leg.

"Merida" her mother said, quickly darting her eyes from the bow to the floor in two swift movements of her eyes. To Merida, this instruction was fairly clear as she got it every single dinner time.

"So, mum, what's life like not as a bear?" Merida asked, starting to eat her food.

"Better. I have my life back and well, you seem much more cheery since the tradition has been broken" her mother replied smiling at her before starting to eat.

"Yeah, it's much better. Hey, I was thinking. Why don't we go out tomorrow. Just me and you. Dad and the boys spend the day and we have time to ourselves" she proposed, awkwardly smiling towards her mum who had placed her fork down beside her plate and looked at her husband who was tucking into the chicken.

"What?" her father asked, mouth full of chicken and face full of sauce.

"Does that sound okay to you dear? the boys can be a handful you know"

"Yeah, it's fine. Go. Have some 'Girly Time'." Her father replied, as he continued eating his chicken

"Mid-day. By the castle gate" Merida replied before standing up out of her chair, gathering her bow and arrow and walking towards her room.

"Night dear" her mother called

"Night mum. Night dad.".


	6. New Emma, New Rules

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p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="5173f0145a505e43bea0ba5feda48ede"Regina sat in her office pondering how on earth she was going to get Merida over from her world into this world. Often she would walk backwards and forwards around her office, her hands on her hips and her heels echoing her every move. Her vault had potions in, magical ones which could possibly help./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7abc8cc630ad234c6b6d09ee0351704d"Emma on the other hand was sitting in her newly transformed clothing on a chair in the corner of the room, staring into both space and the mirror which was parallel to where she was sitting. She often glanced at it flashing herself a mischievous smile before staring once again into space./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="3726cd42391ea9bc4944b11b71cd0cfc""Oh Emma, you now have the power of evil. Too bad the others think that something can stop you" she whispered to herself before being interrupted by a knock./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1ca05b718403d17a07671dfc8590bc04""Emma, It's me Killian" she sighed and got up, the train of her dress sliding behind her as her heels echoed around the room. She strutted towards her door before opening it./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c05b4b5826a86f4c52df63ee85162541""Hello, Killian. What a lovely surprise" She said as she smiled/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="63efae9a3fbd037886294ae2d0b64ea8""Love, this is not you. You're the savior, the one who returns the happy endings to everyone and giving yourself a happy ending. It's your destiny, given to you by your parents, you know, snow white and prince charming?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="0d6fcee88eb6b1a92d2e21f4fd8454ee""Yes Yes, I know. Emma Swan, designated savior" she replied, sarcasm filling every word she spoke. Her hands shaking out in the air as she spoke./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="bbe09f6fd680fec00945fa69442d308c""Yes, love. That is you." Killian said as he walked over to her, attempting to gently touch her shoulder. She placed her hand in the air to stop his hand. The hand he used to attempt to touch her shoulder was covered in both black and gold dust. His hand went heavy but didn't drop./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d2a4d6de99bc96a1013c429ad1485ae5""Killian. Remember, I am now the dark one meaning I'm kinda turning into Mr. Gold also meaning that I can take your heart, my mom's heart, even Regina's heart and control them as if, well, as if their actions are their own. Remember, new me, new rules" she smiled and laughed evilly. /p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="68d3b8bca7dd08f4e285c07dc54fe190""No, Emma. You won't!" He protested./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="32b1f4b218ada64048ff8af4e0cbc982""Can't I?" she questioned turning to face him before poofing away, Killian's hand was released from its prison as he started to head towards the door to alert everyone else about what Emma had just said to him. He was frightened, worried and damn right concerned about what Emma was about to do to this town./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="3e3d7336f467f48ce552fe4112670394""Well, Emma, you say that you're evil. I refuse to believe such a statement" he muttered to himself as he left, slamming the door behind him./p 


End file.
